New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to quash the chargesheet against former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Nirmal Yadav who was allegedly involved in a multimillion rupee "cash in bag" corruption case.

"At this stage we are not prepared to quash the chargesheet," ruled the Apex Court bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and C.K. Prasad. However, the court permitted Nirmal Yadav to raise all her contentions before the trial court which would decide them on merit without being influenced by the observations of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier rejected her plea for the quashing of the chargesheet.

Senior counsel K.T.S. Tulsi, who appeared for Nirmal Yadav, assailed the high court order that it was in the breach of principle of natural justice as she was not permitted access to the material that the court had relied upon in rejecting her plea.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court was hit by the cash-for-judge scam after a packet containing Rs.15 lakh in cash was delivered Aug 13, 2008 at the residence of (then) newly-appointed high court judge Nirmaljit Kaur here.

She complained to the police and got a case registered. Nirmal Yadav was serving in the High Court when the scam was reported.

Police later arrested then Haryana additional advocate general Sanjeev Bansal, a property dealer Rajiv Gupta and Delhi-based hotelier Ravinder Singh in this connection.

Bansal and Gupta told police that the money was meant for another high court judge, Nirmal Yadav.

They claimed that another packet containing Rs.15 lakh was separately delivered to Nirmal Yadav at her official residence later after the first packet was wrongly delivered to the other woman judge.

The money in question was from a land deal, the CBI investigation later stated. Nirmal Yadav, who went on leave after the episode surfaced, was later transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court. Yadav retired last year.